Cyberattack: Hackers ask Israeli Shirbit to pay 50 Bitcoin ransom in 24hrs

TL:DR Breakdown:

• Black Shadow hackers recently attacked an Israeli insurance company, Shirbit.
• They are demanding 50 Bitcoin as ransom, which will be double if not paid by tomorrow.

A group of hackers named the “Black Shadow” reportedly launched a massive kind of cyber-attack against Israeli Shirbit, an insurance company, last week. The incident resulted in the stealing of its users’ personal information. In a recent update from the attacker, they asked the insurance company to send 50 Bitcoin to them to avoid exposing clients’ information. 

They also threatened to double the payment if the Israeli Shirbit doesn’t send the Bitcoin within 24 hours.

Shirbit suffers cyber-attack

The Black Shadow hackers took to Telegram on Wednesday to demand the Bitcoin payment. They precisely noted that Shirbit has “24 hours to send 50 BTC to our wallet” to avoid selling or exposing the stolen information. “If you will not pay after 24 hours, the price will change to 100 BTC. In third day you will have to pay 200 BTC. After that we will sell the data to others,” the hackers added.

Following the price of Bitcoin at $19,066 on Coinmarketcap, the hackers are demanding about $953,300 from the insurance company. Although the hackers noted that the 24-hour count would begin later today, recent information from the Jerusalem Post noted that some personal details of the Israeli company have already been exposed. The information included their ID numbers, registration forms, and drivers’ license.

Meanwhile, the nation’s Capital Market Authority and the National Cyber Directorate had confirmed the attack and are saying that investigation on the attack is currently underway.

Cyber threat on the rise

Cyber-attacks have been on the rise since this year, and the attackers mostly demand ransom in Bitcoin due to its anonymity. Recently, Cryptopolitan reported that Ragnar Locker, a ransomware gang, launched a similar attack on Campari, an Italian alcoholic liqueur. They had demanded about $15 million in Bitcoin in ransom to avoid the data exposure.